Hello everyone! My name is Ana Palacios (she/her) and I’m from Atlanta, GA. I plan on majoring in Anthropology, specifically Medical Anthropology, with a certificate in Global Health. I am hoping to stay on the pre-med track. This summer, I stayed in Atlanta and partnered with the Agape Youth and Family Center to create a health promotion toolkit to serve their elderly. The Agape Youth and Family Center works with underserved families in the Atlanta area, functioning primarily as an after-school service for kids. Check out their site here.
Throughout high school, I volunteered with Agape, so I was so excited to see what it was like during the summer and learn more about their relatively new senior program called RAGTime. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, I could not work and learn from the seniors directly, but in the latter half of the summer I occasionally visited Agape’s summer camps as a volunteer. Agape offers four summer programs: Camp JumpSmart (K-2nd grade), GoGirlGo! (3rd-7th grade girls), FIT Camp (3rd-7th grade boys), and Elevate (8th-12th). Thankfully, all the summer programs were fully in person with social distancing and masks required.
Honestly, as a mainly remote internship, my daily life was not nearly as exciting as the days I visited Agape. I spent most of my internship waking up, making coffee, and going outside to sit and do research and write. On the other hand, the days I visited Agape were always different. I was able to visit Camp JumpSmart and FIT Camp. While Camp JumpSmart focused primarily on academics, FIT Camp focused on staying active. My time with FIT Camp was a lot less hands on as the middle school boys just kind of did their thing; however, I did have a chance to speak with one of the counselors who shared her own experience with Agape. During my time with Camp JumpSmart, the teacher I was paired with mentioned that this summer was focused a lot more on catching up because of last year’s virtual learning. It was easy to understand why virtual learning can be so difficult — I know I struggled with it — but I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for younger kids who really benefit from social interaction when learning. I was, once again, impressed with how Agape adapted to the pandemic to make up for a loss in learning.
Overall, I feel so lucky to have been able to return to an amazing organization in my hometown and learn about the non-profit.
